Internet filtering in Tunisia and China, and the dubious morality of Google & co.

The issue of filtering information on the internet particularly caught my attention during the recent UN meetings in Tunisia discussing the future of the internet - specifically ownership, policing and filtering (ed - meetings in which the US is trying very hard to stake a claim to ownership). Tunisia itself has an ironclad policy of restricting popular access to sensitive content - a fact that has not escaped the notice of the UN delegates and assorted world press. In an interesting twist the Tunisian government has taken a hammering from the world press, after banning a reporter of Reporters Sans Frontieres from entering the country, and censoring the Swiss President's call for an end to imprisonment for writing/accessing sites critical of the government.

In related news, I thought I might point you to a study on internet filtering in China, linked to by The Berkman Centre for Internet and Society (part of Harvard law school). The survey summarised below, points to largescale, effective filtering of internet content by the Chinese government. More worrying still is the collusion of various Search Providers (Google, Yahoo etc) who bow to the PRC Regime's wishes to un-list "innappropriate content". I quote the conclusion of the report below:

Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study:
China makes a systematic, comprehensive, and frequently successful effort to limit the ability of its citizens to access and to post on-line content the state considers sensitive. At the level of legal regulation, China has a complex, overlapping system of laws, regulations, and informal methods that attempts to prevent the creation and distribution of banned material. At the technological level, the state employs a sophisticated infrastructure that filters content at multiple levels and that tolerates overblocking as the price of preventing access to prohibited sites. Importantly, China’s filtering efforts lack transparency: the state does not generally admit to censoring Internet content, and concomitantly there is no list of banned sites and no ability for citizens to request reconsideration of blocking, as some other states that filter provide. The topics defined as sensitive, or prohibited, by China’s legal code are broad and non-specific, and enforcement of laws such as the ban on spreading state secrets discourages citizens from testing the boundaries of these areas. China’s legal and technological systems combine to form a broad, potent, and effective means of controlling the information that Chinese users can see and share on the Internet.

Moreover, the research we have conducted over several years – both individually as institutions and collectively as the ONI – demonstrates increasing sophistication of China’s filtering regime. Its filtering system has become at once more refined and comprehensive over time, building a matrix of controls that stifles access to information deemed illegitimate by authorities. Considering that China’s growing Internet population represents nearly half of all Internet users worldwide, and will soon overtake the United States as the single largest national group of Internet users, such extensive censorship should be of concern to all Internet users worldwide. China’s advanced filtering regime presents a model for other countries with similar interests in censorship to follow. It has also shown a willingness to defend and even promote the principles of its filtering regime to international venues governing global communications, such as the World Summit of the Information Society. While there can be legitimate debates about whether democratization and liberalization are taking place in China’s economy and government, there is no doubt that neither is taking place in China’s Internet environment today.

I believe this to be an issue worthy of much attention, and would welcome comment or further discussion from anyone interested in the development of the internet, the politics of China, and human rights at large. Ryan